You Are A Strange And Beautiful Creature
by kandc
Summary: The world can be amazing to the slightly strange. M for melancholy, humor, possibly descriptive naughty scenes, strangeness, blood and realism.   This story is subject to lots of change; good thing its the good kind.  WRITEN BY COLLEGE STUDENTS.  YE-AH!


Edward Elric and his younger brother, Alphonse, were surrounded by towering stacks of books dumped haphazardly around them on the floor of the dusty library. Ed's eyes felt like they were glued to the pages as he searched for any mention of the words 'Philosopher's stone.' Al was quiet; Ed wondered if he'd fallen asleep. They'd been camped out in the library for the past two days, ignoring the fact Colonel Roy Mustang was waiting for a report from them. Since the report was not a good one Ed was doing whatever he could to delay it. And that included stopping at every large city's library and looking through their books.

So far though, they hadn't found anything and Ed was getting more and more restless. How much longer would it be before they got their bodies back? Before Al could actually eat a meal again and feel it when Ed's fist connected with his chest during their scurmises? It'd been four years since Ed had passed his state alchemy exam and they'd begun their search. Now, four years later, and they had nothing to show for it. Everything they'd done felt like one long episodic wild goose chase that ended with fakes and failures.

Ed pulled off his glove and studied his shiny metal automail hand, squeezing his fingers into a fist. He got up off the floor, the heavy texts that'd been in his lap falling off him and thumping against the ground. The sound echoed eerily.

Ed left Al sleeping and wandered outside, needing the fresh air. There were some kids playing around farther down the hill the library was situated on and he watched them draw with dark pieces of charcoal. He remembered when he and Al had drawn for the fun of it, pictures to show their mother. Once they'd gotten into alchemy, though, all their pictures had been of transmutation circles. No more dogs and cats and people.

The kids had finished their drawing, Ed noticed. They all stepped back from it, except for one small girl and boy. They nodded their heads once to each other and then got on their knees and pressed their hands against the dirt.

Ed was off and running toward them before he even registered the glow of light.

He shoved the two children out of the circle and clapped his hands together, preparing to counter whatever dangerous alchemy the kids had created. Instead the circle of light fizzled and faded away.

A collective whimper came from the group of children. Ed whirled on them. "What the heck's wrong with you kids? Do you know what you were trying to do? Alchemy isn't something you can just play around with with no thought to the consequences! It can be very dangerous!"

One of the little girls started crying. The girl that had been in the circle turned to Ed and shouted, "You don't have to be so mean! We weren't trying to do anything bad! Tia just wanted her doll fixed!"

Ed glanced at the poorly-drawn transmutation circle. At the center was a strange doll. Curious, he picked it up. It was definitely one he'd never seen before. Instead of the usual cloth and rag dolls, this one seemed to be made of plastic and rubber? It had long blonde hair and detailed facial features and an unnaturally proportioned body. It's leg was twisted and it's head had fallen off.

"Where'd you get this?" Ed asked the older girl who'd yelled at him.

"Some girl gave it to us. She said it's name is Barbie. But it's Tia's! So you can't have it!"

"Relax," Ed said. "What would I want with this weird thing? And who names a doll 'Barbie?'" He laid the doll back down and clapped his hands. "But I'll fix it for you." And he pressed his hands on either side of the doll.

Blue sparks shot up from the ground, dancing along the tiny doll, repairing its head and broken limb. Suddenly though, the blue light flashed brighter and took on a darkening purple hue rising up over Ed and striking him into darkness.

Ed yelled as he felt his body warping and twisting through the dark purple haze. He tried to fight back the nausea, as his stomach flip-flopped through the unforeseen rollercoaster. He felt himself pulled forward by unknown hands. Everything seemed to stop, then rush forward similar to a drop from a high height. Good thing he wasn't afraid of heights. As this continued on chaotically it seemed like there was no time passing, just Ed's constant yelling. The only thing that made sense to him was the feeling of his throat throbbing from all his yelling.

This place was void, empty, consuming and hungry. It engulfed him entirely and pulled at his whole being from his insides to his toes with invisible strings. He couldn't count on his senses anymore. He wished his brother were here—but then, no he wouldn't want him to experience this. In this place he even wondered if he was still alive. He had to escape if he just, just-Just as he was unable to take anymore of the onslaught it came to an end with his vision of a white light. He shielded his eyes and after what seemed like eternity he gasped for air with his wild hair blocking his eyes.

The man was very unhappy. His wife wouldn't stop nagging him about finding a job and spending more time with the kids, because he was pretty much doing everything humanly possible to be a terrible husband and father. Like it was his fault he'd been fired by that ass who'd never appreciated him. He'd worked hard. Sure, he'd been late a couple times, phoned in sick a little too often, and forgotten to clean every bathroom like he was supposed to. (Except the women's bathrooms; he'd never forgotten to clean those.) But with only crappy recommendations how was he ever going to get another janitorial job?

He was washing his hands in the bathroom of the movie theater. His wife had dragged him to another lousy chick flick. As if after the twentieth one it would start to grow on him. Yeah, like a fatal fugus.

The man was scratcing his five o' clock shadow in the mirror when the bathroom burst into blue and purple light. A boy tumbled out of one of the men's urinals. He hit the tile with a groan.

Just then, the bathroom door opened and a father holding his little son's hand stepped in. The boy that had come from the urinal groaned again.

"What in the hell...?"

The father's eyes widened. "Daddy, what's-" And the son was dragged out of there by his father before he could finish.

Ed grumbled about the antics of stupid kids as he unstuck his face to the sticky stone floor. He sat on his knees and brushed off his jacket and pants. He wiped his mouth on his arm sleeve as he looked up. Squinting he noticed everything was strange here, off. There were very big reflective objects with a sparkling white bowl on a counter. The floor was not composed of stone, but something else entirely as he studied it more. And there were walls that had multiple separated doors. To his left there were even bigger oblong shinning bowls with metal fixtures above them against the will with water in the bottom of them. As he looked around he saw the blinding lights that had ended his passage throught the purple maze. They had been above him the whole time, and they were contained in a weird nearly invisible box. He was thankful for them, even if they were unknown to him. What kind of alchemy was this? What had even happened to him? What was this place? He slowly got up, paranoid, listening carefully and watching for any strange movements as his adrenaline rushed.


End file.
